Software defined automotive radar systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10145954-B2
Application number	US-201715844994-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2017
Priority date	Apr 7, 2016
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

A radar system processes signals in a flexible, adaptive manner to determine range, Doppler (velocity) and angle of objects in an environment. The radar system processes the received signal to achieve different objectives depending on one or more of a selected range resolution, a selected velocity resolution, and a selected angle of arrival resolution, as defined by memory requirements and processing requirements. The system allows improved resolution of range, Doppler and/or angle depending on the memory requirements and processing requirements.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating a dynamically adaptable vehicular radar system, the method comprising:
providing a transmitter configured for installation and use on a vehicle;
providing a receiver configured for installation and use on the vehicle;
wherein the receiver comprises a dynamically adaptable digital front end processor and a dynamically adaptable digital back end processor;
providing a memory;
transmitting radio signals using the transmitter;
receiving radio signals using the receiver, wherein the received radio signals include transmitted radio signals transmitted by the transmitter and reflected from objects in an environment;
controlling an operation of at least one of the transmitter and the receiver to provide at least one of a selected range resolution, a selected velocity resolution, and a selected angle of arrival resolution; wherein controlling the operation of at least one of the transmitter and the receiver is dynamically and adaptively variable, as defined by a selected functional requirement and a current environmental condition, and wherein the functional requirement comprises at least one of a selected processing time and a memory requirement:
storing data into the memory that was produced by the digital front end processing unit from the received radio signals; and
directing the digital back end processor to process the stored data based upon the controlled operation of the at least one of the transmitter and the receiver.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for a given radio signal bandwidth and receiver scan duration, selection of a velocity resolution comprising an increased velocity resolution results in selection of a range resolution comprising a decreased range resolution.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein, for a given radio signal bandwidth and receiver scan duration, selection of a range resolution comprising an increased range resolution results in selection of a velocity resolution comprising a decreased velocity resolution.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling an operation of the transmitter comprises controlling an operation of at least one device selected from the group consisting of (i) a digital processing unit of the transmitter, (ii) a digital-to-analog converter of the transmitter, (iii) an analog processing unit of the transmitter, and (iv) a transmit antenna of the transmitter, and wherein controlling an operation of the receiver comprises controlling an operation of at least one device selected from the group consisting of (i) a receive antenna of the receiver, (ii) an analog processing unit of the receiver, (iii) an analog-to-digital converter of the receiver, (iv) a digital front end processing unit of the receiver, and (v) a digital back end processing system of the receiver.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling an operation of the receiver comprises controlling the receiver to process range information from the received radio signals, and wherein the receiver is configured to:
identify a set of objects with a highest received signal strength;
estimate a Doppler velocity for the objects using one of a median, a weighted arithmetic mean, and a weighted geometric mean of corresponding samples for different range bins associated with an object;
calculate one of (i) a first phase shift, from one complex correlator input sample to a next complex correlator input sample, that corresponds to the estimated Doppler velocity, and (ii) a second phase shift, from one complex correlator output sample to a next complex correlator output sample, that corresponds to the estimated Doppler velocity; and
derotate an Nth complex sample pre or post correlator by a multiple of one of the first phase shift and the second phase shift, depending on which phase shift was estimated.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling an operation of the receiver comprises controlling the receiver to process range information from the received radio signals, and wherein the receiver is configured to:
select an object for which a better Doppler estimation is desired;
store multiple time scans corresponding to a range of a desired object; and
perform Doppler processing on extended information from multiple scans to obtain more precise Doppler information.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein controlling an operation of at least one of the transmitter and the receiver is based upon external information received by the radar sensing system.

8. A radar sensing system for a vehicle, the radar sensing system comprising:
a transmitter configured for installation and use on a vehicle, and configured to transmit radio signals;
a receiver configured for installation and use on the vehicle, and configured to receive radio signals, wherein the received radio signals include transmitted radio signals transmitted by the transmitter and reflected from objects in an environment;
a memory;
a control unit configured to control an operation of at least one of the transmitter and the receiver to provide at least one of a selected range resolution, a selected velocity resolution, and a selected angle of arrival resolution, wherein the control unit is further configured to dynamically and adaptively vary the operation of at least one of the transmitter and the receiver, as defined by a selected functional requirement and a current environmental condition, and wherein the functional requirement comprises at least one of a selected processing time and a memory requirement;
wherein data produced by the receiver from the received radio signals is stored in the memory; and
wherein the control unit controls the processing of the stored data based upon the controlled operation of the at least one of the transmitter and the receiver.

9. The radar sensing system of claim 8 , wherein, for a given radio signal bandwidth and receiver scan duration, selection of a velocity resolution comprising an increased velocity resolution results in selection of a range resolution comprising a decreased range resolution.

10. The radar sensing system of claim 8 , wherein, for a given radio signal bandwidth and receiver scan duration, selection of a range resolution comprising an increased range resolution results in selection of a velocity resolution comprising a decreased velocity resolution.

11. The radar sensing system of claim 8 , wherein the control unit is configured to control an operation of at least one device selected from the group consisting of (i) a digital processing unit of the transmitter, (ii) a digital-to-analog converter of the transmitter, (iii) an analog processing unit of the transmitter, and (iv) a transmit antenna of the transmitter, and wherein the control unit is configured to control an operation of at least one device selected from the group consisting of (i) a receive antenna of the receiver, (ii) an analog processing unit of the receiver, (iii) an analog-to-digital converter of the receiver, (iv) a digital front end processing unit of the receiver, and (v) a digital back end processing system of the receiver.

12. The radar sensing system of claim 8 , wherein the control unit is configured to control an operation of the receiver to process range information from the received radio signals, and wherein the receiver is configured to:
identify a set of objects with a highest received signal strength;
estimate a Doppler velocity for the objects using one of a median, a weighted arithmetic mean, and a weighted geometric mean of corresponding samples for different range bins associated with an object;
calculate one of (i) a first phase shift, from one complex correlator input sample to a next complex correlator input sample,

Assignees

• Uhnder Inc

Inventors

• Davis Curtis
• Maher Monier
• Bordes Jean P
• Hegde Manju
• Schmid Otto A
• Rao Raghunath K
• Goldenberg Marius
• Eshraghi Aria
• Giannini Vito
• Trager David S
• Bhagat Nikhilesh
• Gollapudi Srikanth
• Govindarajan Sundar
• Borho Steve
• Preussner Jonathan
• Dent Paul W
• Bassett Paul
• Alland Stephen W
• Harris Fred
• Stark Wayne E
• Ali Murtaza

Classifications

• H04B17/345

  Interference values ({signal-to-interference ratio [SIR] or carrier-to-interference ratio [CIR]} H04B17/336) · CPC title

• H04L27/2278

  using correlation techniques, e.g. for spread spectrum signals · CPC title

• G01S2013/9322

  using additional data, e.g. driver condition, road state or weather data · CPC title

• G01S2013/93272

  in the back of the vehicles · CPC title

• G01S2013/9316

  combined with communication equipment with other vehicles or with base stations · CPC title